Public health officials: verify your children's mumps are up to date

Most cases in the Midwest outbreak have been adults, many of whom have received only one MMR vaccine.

Posted: Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Wondering if you should have a second shot to protect yourself from the Midwest mumps outbreak?

If you were born before 1989, chances are you probably only had one mumps shot, called the measles-mumps-and-rubella vaccine.

Some of the college-aged students, age 18-25, affected by the outbreak received only one dose of the MMR vaccine. Since 1989, the government has recommended two doses of the MMR vaccine for all children.

Check with your doctor about whether to have a second shot if you work in health care or plan to visit any of the 13 states tied to the outbreak, including Iowa, which has more than 1,700 mumps cases.

Georgia doesn't have any confirmed mumps cases, said Dr. Diane Weems, chief medical officer for the Chatham County Health Department.

Double doses are effective at preventing mumps in about 90 percent of people. One dose prevents mumps in about 80 percent, Weems said.

Even though such vaccinations are not 100 percent effective, they're still the best protection against mumps, Weems said.

"In areas like Georgia that aren't experiencing an outbreak, we're reminding physicians and parents to make sure their children's immunizations are up to date,'' Weems said. ''When a community is well-immunized, then the fewer individuals you have who are susceptible.''

Weems suggested parents verify their children have received two MMR vaccinations by checking with their physician and health department.

Because mumps can spread through sneezing and coughing, hand-washing and common-sense hygiene, such as not sharing eating utensils and drinking glasses, are always important, Weems said.

About 1,305 mumps cases are also in Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Pennsylvania and South Dakota. Twelve isolated, travel-related cases were reported from Colorado, Minnesota, Mississippi, Arkansas and New York, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The multi-state outbreak ''is likely to reach as far as Georgia,'' wrote Dr. Doug Skelton, director of the Coastal Health District, in letters sent last month notifying physicians about symptoms and tests for mumps.

The letters were sent to physicians in Camden County after a student at Camden County High School had possible mumps last month. The case turned out not to be mumps.

Most children in this area have had their immunizations, including two doses of the MMR, Weems said.

The Coastal Health District - which includes Bryan, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Long and McIntosh counties - had a better immunization rate than the state last year: 89 percent vs. 72 percent, according to Ginger Heidel, director of marketing and public relations for the Chatham County Health Department.

Chatham County did even better. The Eisenhower health department's rate was 100 percent and the Midtown site's rate was 96 percent, Heidel said.

The rates are done annually and include children 19-35 months of age who are seen by the health department for vaccines.

Georgia also has an immunization registry called GRITS (Georgia Registry of Immunization Transactions and Services) which tracks what immunizations a person has received. It can be extremely helpful in an outbreak, Heidel said.

"For example, when we were notified of the possible mumps case in Camden,'' Heidel said, "the school nurses were able to use GRITS to pull the immunization records of all the children in the particular school to see if they'd been vaccinated against mumps.''